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enTen Years Later, Technology Catches Up with Go-L's Fictional Systemshttp://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/ten_years_later_technology_catches_go-ls_fictional_systems2013
<!--paging_filter--><h3><img src="/files/u69/go-l_mach.jpg" alt="Go-L Mach System" title="Go-L" width="228" height="150" style="float: right;" />A look back at Go-L's wild technology claims and how they would stack up today.</h3>
<p>It's been a long time since I've thought about Go-L, also known as Liebermann Inc., a computer company founded in 2003 that drew instant attention on the Internet for advertising technology that, at the time, seemed too good be true. And it was, at least back then. Go-L went belly up a year later, tried to make a return in 2005, and then disappeared for good. Had Go-L been able to maintain what many feel was a hoax for the better of a decade, it might actually have been able to deliver some of its much hyped technologies today.</p>
<p>You have to hit up the Internet Archive's <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20040201205409/http://www.go-l.com/desktops/machl38/features/index.htm" target="_blank">Wayback Machine</a> to see what Go-L was promoting at the time, and if you do, you'll discover terms like "SuperBIOS," "CacheFlow," "PuRAM," and "Intelligent BIOS Priority Threading," all of which were featured in the Mach L 3.8 Personal Supercomputer.</p>
<p>What's funny about Go-L's grandiose technology claims is that they sort of exist today. Go-L describes CacheFlow as a "preemptive multi-threading artificial intelligence memory engine, made of a group of extremely complex and sophisticated high performance Data and Memory Management Architectures, directly derived from supercomputing and high-end main frame designs." Don't worry about trying to wrap your head around all that, because after the fancy introduction, Go-L goes on to explain that CacheFlow is essentially a means to plop frequently accessed data and active files onto a PuRAM drive while parked (unused) data sits on the hard drive.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="/files/u69/cenatek.jpg" alt="Cenatek Drive" title="Cenatek" width="548" height="477" /></p>
<p>What's a PuRAM drive? It's basically a RAM drive, which sounded cool at the time (and do actually exist) because solid state drives (SSDs) weren't yet a thing in the consumer market. Things are a little different now and SSDs are becoming commonplace. What's more, Go-L's CacheFlow technology doesn't sound all that different from Intel's Smart Response technology, which allows a smaller SSD to act as cache storage for a larger hard drive.</p>
<p>Go-L's SuperBIOS is more of a stretch. What is it?</p>
<p>"Breakthrough exclusive software / hardware design allows for real-time background manipulation of key BIOS values while within the Windows environment, automatically adjusting voltages, thermal controls and clock speeds for memory, CPU, AGP, system bus, and more as needed," Go-L explained at the time. "his is called Intelligent Bios Priority Threading (IBPT) and it continuously monitors your applications usage, total system load, temperature, power watt usage, and adjusts the resources of your hardware, adaptively maximizing them for both highest through output during peak requests, and superlative resource-saving/cool down during background processing or when idle."</p>
<p>We do have processors from both AMD and Intel that ramp up or down in clockspeed as needed, and not even Go-L predicted the evolution of the BIOS to UEFI, but the SuperBIOS as described doesn't exist in its entirety. Nor does 24-hours of battery life in a quad-core laptop (though there are Ultrabooks that promise all-day battery life), which Go-L pimped as being able to run without any need for electrical recharging.</p>
<p>"Fuel cells work by combining the fuel with oxygen from the air and using the energy liberated to drive an electrical current," <a href="http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&amp;newsId=20061018005899&amp;newsLang=en" target="_blank">Go-L stated</a> in a 2006 press release.</p>
<p><img src="/files/u69/grand_canyon_display.jpg" alt="Go-L Grand Canyon Display" title="Grand Canyon Display" width="620" height="194" /></p>
<p>Then there was Go-L's <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20040201205850/http://www.go-l.com/monitors/grand_canyon/features/index.htm" target="_blank">Grandy Canyon display setup</a>, which is rivaled today by Eyefinity setups.</p>
<p>As for the basic specs of the time, a top-of-the-line system from Go-L back in the day consisted of an Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition CPU clocked at 3.8GHz, up to 4GB of DDR RAM, up to 2TB of storage, AGP Pro 8X graphics, up to eight USB 2.0 ports, 550W power supply, and other items that seem far less impressive today.</p>
<p>If you're a long time reader of Maximum PC, you might recall an in-depth look at a Mach L 3.8 system that appeared in the January 2004 issue on page 38. Yes, Go-L actually shipped a system for review, though it was stripped of pretty much all of the advertised technologies. Take a trip down memory and <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=OgIAAAAAMBAJ&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;source=gbs_ge_summary_r&amp;cad=0#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" target="_blank">check it out</a> (also be sure to read former Editorial Director Jon Phillips remarks on page 15).</p>
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http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/ten_years_later_technology_catches_go-ls_fictional_systems2013#commentscacheflowgo-lHardwareliebermann computersmach 3.8OEMpuramrigssuperbiosNewsFri, 01 Feb 2013 17:18:16 +0000Paul Lilly24945 at http://www.maximumpc.com